Talk:Dr. Bellows
Do we actually know they are different people? I don't think there's a conflicting physical description or anything clear like that, and it's at least imaginable that in the Whateley Universe tests like those may be more or less standard for psychiatrists. If you are supposed to diagnose schizophrenia you may need to be able to test whether they are a low key telepath, for example. And as a psychiatrist he is an MD anyway. I find it hard to believe that J. G. would introduce a character with the same name as a canon character in a story originally written as fanfic on purpose, and they don't seem so different that they would have to be retconned as different people out of necessity afterwards if originally intended to be the same. Addiab 18:15, October 15, 2010 (UTC) A psychiatrist is not an MD, entirely different coureswork; Dr. means you have a Doctorate, many different Doctorates out there, heck you can get a Doctorate in Library Science! The background for being a Powers Testing wonk would be very different from student counselor/psychiatrist/psychologist. The story has him supervising all of the tests, not just those that might fall into psychology. And, frankly, given his schedule as counselor he doesn't have the time to be doing powers testing activities. I don't find it hard to believe that J. G. would use a name similar to an existing character, but I'm used to that happening in real life. To me, the only similarity between these characters is the last name. And the argument on name duplication, well, in Canon we have two Frostbites, two Thorns, and the possibility of two Multiplexes, it happens. Various first name only characters where they are clearly different individuals. To me, these have been two different characters since I first read it, different work areas, different areas of specialization. So I don't see it as a retcon, I see it as how it has always been. Retconning would be arguing they were the same person.JohnBobMead 15:15, October 16, 2010 (UTC) You are thinking of a Psychologist, who would be a PhD. Psychiatrist is a medical specialization and requires a MD. Fanfic is completely different from written as canon in regard to name duplication, with fanfic the default assumption when something is different in a not obviously intentional way is that you made a mistake while with canon the default assumption is that you are adding new information, so with fanfic the incentive to avoid anything that might look like a mistake even if it isn't is much, much larger. As for time and different specializations, figuring out the exact powers of a teenager already known to have powers seems a rather different proposition from testing someone who previously slipped through for possible subtle ESP powers they are unaware of, which may be more of a psychological problem than a correct classification problem, and there may be special reasons for him to test Mahren specifically. Mahren is a complicated person and might trust him personally, but be unable to open up with the usual power testing people. Testing Mahren is not the same as testing some random student. In any case this Dr. Bellows isn't really a power testing guy anyway whether he is Alfred or not, he's some sort of omni-competent MD equally adept at emergency medicine, internal medicine and surgery (able to do a heart surgery by rote!). Frankly this plethora of medical specializations seems a much larger issue than the little bit of power testing! Nevertheless I'm not convinced there is a separate Dr. Bellows in whateley medical mentioned in the Bible. Bellows is not exactly a frequent name and you'd think there would have been a remark along the lines of "- the psychiatrist, not the all-round medical savant" or "Alfred, not XXX" in reference to Alfred if there were two of them in the Bible. It's not like with the situation with e. g. the Johnson in science and the Johnson in security where no one would even consider that they might be the same person. Of course I'm not convinced the guy in Upheaval is Alfred Bellows either, I simply think we don't have enough information to decide. In fact in CTT5 it sounds like the test in Upheaval was retconned to have been Dr. Polland all along, though it's not very clear. So I'd just chalk it up to fanfic origin weirdness. Addiab 01:52, October 17, 2010 (UTC) Addiab 01:52, October 17, 2010 (UTC) No, actually, I don't think there'd have been such a remark. I'd think there's little enough overlap of activities between Powers Research and Student Counselling that there'd be no confusion. Just like Security and Science. Having just skimmed through Upheaval 1 again, he's more medical in some ways than I'd been thinking, in that they'd have him as part of a med team as well as powers testing. But the feel of the person is sufficiently different, skill sets, where he's spending his time, that the only reason I'd think them the same person would be the last name. The only appearance in Upheaval 2 is medical staff, no question. Upheaval 3 he's medical. (Search software is so nice, isn't it?) CTT5, dang, medical but talks about problems getting Mahren/Caitlin into a counselling session. But definitely someone who's worked with Polland on Powers stuff a lot. And the bit with Ophelia being able to make Mahren cooperate due to better psycological understanding of him than Bellows had. And the statement about Mahren leaving the room if he was with a psychic shrink, Bellows the counselor is psychic, not an intrusive telepath type, but still psychic, would he have counted? This Bellows doesn't demonstrate the counselor skills Alfred does. Takes the statement that none of them are cleared for certain information as a smart-ass remark, instead of saying 'former military, by God, we might not be cleared for this information!' This is not the man who works with Jade, Tennyo, Sara and Chou; its pre-Diane, so the Ayla stories don't come into play. Or, of course, it could be very bad characterization, twisting an established character in very strange ways, both in character and in skill sets and work environment. I truly prefer the idea that its a different Dr. Bellows. Because for it to be the same Dr. Bellows requires a very bad job of writing.JohnBobMead 04:53, October 17, 2010 (UTC) After a full night's sleep, bad characterization wins out. The redirect is back.JohnBobMead 14:54, October 17, 2010 (UTC)